


just a little bit longer (stay)

by starlight_sugar



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/M, Pre-Season/Series 03
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-08
Updated: 2013-07-08
Packaged: 2017-12-18 04:12:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/875488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlight_sugar/pseuds/starlight_sugar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jackson tells her he's moving at seven minutes past midnight, the eighth day of summer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	just a little bit longer (stay)

**Author's Note:**

> title is from the song "stay" by maurice williams.

Jackson tells her he's moving at seven minutes past midnight, the eighth day of summer.

"My parents think I got mixed up in drugs or gangs or something," he explains. They're sitting on a park bench, just far enough outside town that she can see the stars.  "I've tried everything and they just - they won't listen. I'm leaving."

Lydia leans into his shoulder. He's sitting rigidly, his shoulders a solid line, the way that she's tried to stop him from sitting because he doesn't need to be rigid for her. "Do you know where you're going?" she murmurs.

"London," he says, and barks out a laugh. "Just to be sure, they're taking me off the continent."

"Are you sure they just don't want a change?" Jackson has been acting shady since becoming an actual werewolf, sure, but not drugs-shady, and certainly not gang-shady. Although, she muses, Derek looks like he could be a gang leader. A very attractive, minimally-scarred gang leader.

"No," Jackson admits, and relaxes incrementally. "It's probably that. But I'm pissed. I've lived here my entire life and suddenly they're - they're just done? Just need a change of scenery?"

"Is it work?" Lydia asks quietly, because Jackson needs someone to ask. He needs someone who can listen.

"I don't know," he mutters, and runs a hand down his face, sighs heavier than any sixteen-year-old should ever feel. "I just finally had everything perfect. Fuck."

Lydia hums sympathetically and twines her hand into his. "You're going to come back and visit, though."

"I had everything," Jackson repeats, and there's a manic edge to his voice, and there's a twist in his mouth, and there's an ache in Lydia's stomach. "I - I'm on the track to valedictorian, I'm captain of the team, I have fucking superpowers and a pack and Danny and  _you_  and they're just going to take all that away, I have to start over in another country-"

"Jackson," Lydia says firmly, moving to kneel in front of him. " _Jackson_. Look at me. You're going to be fine."

"I am fine," he snarls, but when he finally looks at her, he looks sadder than she's seen in years. He looks alone.

"And that's how I know," she murmurs, moving her free hand to the back of his neck. He looks dully at her, panic in the line of his mouth. "You've survived the werewolf apocalypse and you're fine. You'll be fine in London, too."

"I don't want to be fine in London," Jackson says quietly, "I want to be fine here."

"Oh, honey," Lydia sighs, leans forward, kisses him gently. "You could go to the middle of Siberia and I think you'd still be okay. You don't need any of us. You're bigger than this town."

"So are you," he murmurs. She closes her eyes and his thumb sweeps across her cheek, his fingers curl under her chin. She's the only one who'll see him like this. She's the only one who'll ever know how scared he is to leave.

"And I'll get out, get to Harvard," she answers, opening her eyes and letting herself look at him. "You're just getting out first."

"I don't want to lose you," Jackson whispers, and she could cry when she hears the shake to his voice. "But I'm going to, again, and I - God, Lyd, I love you, you know that, don't you?"

"Of course," she answers immediately. Her voice cracks. She can't make herself care. "I love you too."

Jackson makes a pained noise and kisses her, kisses like he's drowning and she's the last air he'll ever see. She pushes back because he needs it, and maybe she does, too.

"Just stay for the summer," he rasps. "Just - I leave in July, give me a month, just a month, and I can be your first love, your high school sweetheart, and you can be mine, and we can move on."

"I'd give you a year if you asked," Lydia sighs against his mouth. It's a yes and it's an apology, and it's her way of telling him that she needs him to stay.

"That's why I can't ask," he says reluctantly, which is how he tells her that he will, and pulls on their joined hands. "Sit back down, c'mon."

"Okay," she breathes out, and sits next to him. She melts against the line of his shoulder, slides her head in the divot of his neck. Jackson kisses her on top of her head, rests his cheek there. "Okay," she says again, and tries to think about the stars instead of July.


End file.
